LOCAL MP GAINS COMMITMENT FROM PRIME MINISTER TO PROTECT THE SAFETY REGIME IN THE NORTH SEA
January 27, 2012 2:04 PM
Sir Robert Smith used Prime Minister's Questions to highlight the threat to safety in the North Sea by the plans to bring in direct regulation from Brussels. He called on the Prime Minister to do all he can to ensure that the UK's world leading health and safety regime is not compromised by the proposed changes.
Sir Robert told Parliament:
"Following the death of 167 workers in the piper alpha disaster in the North Sea this country developed a world leading safety case regime for offshore oil and gas which is now threatened by regulations in the European Union."
Later, Sir Robert commented on the Prime Minister's response :
"I welcome the Prime Ministers Commitment to protect the safety regime in the North Sea and his promise to work with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to do all that he can in Europe to get the right regulations for the North Sea. It is important that we now build alliances with other countries in the EU who are sympathetic to our concerns."
The European Union published its draft proposals on the safety regime for offshore oil and gas activity at the end of 2011. The proposals were created in response to the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 which resulted in the loss of 11 lives and extensive damage to the environment as well as to the Gulf's tourism and fishing industries.
The European Union had initially stated that it would use the UK Industry as a world exemplar and would use EU regulations to ensure that the rest of the EU was brought up to the same safety standards as the UK. Upon the publication of the proposals, however, the UK Industry and the UK Government has expressed a high level of concern that not only will the proposals lead to an enormous amount of extra regulation and legislation in the UK, but that they may actually undermine safety in the North Sea.
The proposals are yet to be examined by the European Parliament and Sir Robert emphasised the importance of the UK working with other EU countries to change the regulations so that they enhance safety across the European Union without threatening the excellent safety regime in the UK.
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